


Trying Hard not to Fall

by Aleekae



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Gratuitous use of italics, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sick Fic, comforting (?) andrew, sick neil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 20:25:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8116324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aleekae/pseuds/Aleekae
Summary: Mary’s hands clenched tighter around the steering wheel. “Symptoms?”Neil thought about it for a minute, but he knew he couldn’t lie to his mother. She would just find out anyways, given how they never left each other’s side. “Runny nose, scratchy throat. No fever.”“Yet.”“Yet.”





	

“What was that?” Her voice was harsh, unforgiving, a threat.

Neil cleared his throat, once, twice. The tickle didn’t disappear, but he managed to clear his voice enough to answer normally. “Where to next?”

Mary nodded in approval, but her tight tone gave away her unease, “Montana. Then Oregon. How long?”

Neil turned back to the passenger side window, subtly wiping his nose on the collar of his sweatshirt. “This morning.”

Mary’s hands clenched tighter around the steering wheel. “Symptoms?”

Neil thought about it for a minute, but he knew he couldn’t lie to his mother. She would just find out anyways, given how they never left each other’s side. “Runny nose, scratchy throat. No fever.”

“Yet.”

“Yet.”

Mary swerved off onto the closest exit and parked at a run-down 7-11. Neil exited the car, making sure to grab a five dollar bill from their tollway fund in the middle console. He kept the hood of his sweatshirt up as he surveyed the over-the-counter medicine and chose to cheapest, most generic pills he could find.

When he returned to the car, his mom refused to unlock the passenger side door. Neil quickly got the hint and went for the backseat instead. He spent the next three hours passed out, lying across the seat with his head pillowed on his arm as the sweet lull of night time cold medication hit his system.

He woke up with a start as the car door he was leaning against suddenly opened, jostling him from the most dreamless sleep he had had in years. “Your turn to drive, Chris.” Mary said, leaving him to gather himself as she got into the passenger seat.

Neil rounded the car and situated himself behind the wheel, glancing quickly at the road map before jumping onto the northernmost highway. He felt generally fine, his nose was stuffed but not dripping, and his head was only mildly pounding. About an hour into driving however, his headache quickly evolved into a full on migraine and chills started to rack his small frame. He felt torn between tearing off his sweat-slicked sweatshirt or leaving it on to hold in whatever warmth he could accumulate from his heated face. He glanced over at his mom, who was half-asleep in the passenger seat, before rooting around in the center console for the pills he had bought earlier. No such luck.  
  
Mary had thrown away the pills the moment he had fallen asleep. He knew that she would only allow him a brief moment of weakness, of comfort from his sickness, before bringing him back to reality. It was necessary for their survival of course. Neil was sure that the entire time he was in his drug-induced coma, his mom was an anxious mess of nerves, constantly checking the car mirrors for familiar vehicles or faces.

He sucked on his bottom lip and coughed into his sleeve. It sounded like a dog had barked obscenely loud, wet and from the chest. He had a brief moment of contentedness before another tickle in his throat led him into a very loud, seemingly eternal coughing fit.

“Pull over.” Mary shouted through the coughs. Neil obeyed and pulled the car onto the curb, careful to turn on the hazards before putting it into park. He didn’t have the foresight to block his face, however, when Mary began hitting him. It started with a simple slap across the face, the shock of it briefly interrupting his coughing, and then quickly evolved into hair-pulling and bruise-inducing punches. Neil curled into himself almost instantly, the tickle in his throat forced into submission for the time being.

“I gave you three hours. Three fucking hours, Chris.” She yelled, “We don’t have time for you to be sick.”

“I’m fine!” Neil shouted back, his voice muffled by his arms as they protected his face from her fists. “I swear I’m fine!”

“Again.” Mary said, finally sitting back in her seat. Her eyes were wild, frantically watching the traffic race past them in blurs of color. “Tell me again.”

“I’m fine.” Neil stated, his voice coming out clear if not a little hoarse. Another chill surged through his body and he felt saliva gather in his mouth. His ears were ringing, his face was pulsing, and his nose started dripping. Whether it was snot or blood, he didn’t know. But he was fine. _It could be worse_ , he told himself. _I’ve been through worse. I’m fine._

After a few minutes of silence, Mary nodded and Neil pulled back onto the highway, all thoughts focused on his mantra of _I’m fine_.

 

oOo

 

“Neil?”

“Dude, he’s out cold.”

“You wake him up.”

“Okay, but then you get to wake up Andrew.”

“Andrew’s out too? Goddammit.”

The world slowly came into focus as Nicky’s and Matt’s voices filtered through his dream. It had been a pleasant one, filled with the smell of smoke and whiskey and the noises of a college campus at night. The problem was, however, that Neil didn’t remember falling asleep in the first place.

“Neil? Oh thank god you’re awake!” Nicky’s voice was still a little muffled, but Neil reached enough consciousness to sit up and blink a couple times before taking in his surroundings. They were on the bus, headed back from their first away game of the season. “Please wake up Andrew? You’re the only one I know he won’t murder in cold blood.”

Neil opened his mouth to say _I wouldn’t count on that_ , but what came out was a loud, wet, bark of a cough. He covered his mouth as a couple more ripped their way from his chest to his throat, the force of it doubling him over in the bus seat.

“Well, I guess that works too,” Nicky murmured, settling a hand on Neil’s back and giving him a couple pats. Neil assumed that he meant it to be comforting or helpful, but he only felt annoyance.

“I’m fine,” he sputtered, a cough interrupting his sentence and leading him into yet another fit.

“I thought we were over that,” Andrew said, his tone disdainful and not even a little bit sleepy. He swatted at Nicky’s arm, causing the man to retract his helpful gesture and instead look at Neil pityingly. “Your thick skull strikes again.”

Neil wiped his sleeve across his nose and assessed the damage. His head was pounding, his eyes were tired (though that could’ve been from the nap), his nose was running, and he felt cold all over. He swallowed and felt the aftermath of his violent coughing fit in his throat. “I’m fine.” He didn’t mean to say it again, he really didn’t.

“Tell me ‘I’m fine’ one more time,” Andrew spat, turning on the bench so he was facing Neil, “do it. Tell me again.”

It was like he had dropped a ball of lead into Neil’s stomach. He suddenly felt hot and cold and every drastic temperature in between, all while the bile in his stomach rose to unexpected levels. Those were her words. Neil ducked his head and sucked down gulps of air, which quickly caught in his throat and turned into gasping, wet coughs.

“What’s going on down there?” Wymack shouted from the front of the bus. Neil was aware of every Fox turning their attention to him, but he couldn’t find the control he needed to stop.

He was vaguely aware of Andrew’s hand slipping into his shirt collar, gripping at the back of his neck. “Tell him to pull over,” Andrew murmured over his head.

“Coach, pull the bus over! Neil’s gonna be sick!” Matt called out. Concerned voices rose from the crowd of foxes now gathering towards the back of the bus. Andrew crowded closer to Neil, ensuring that he was the only one that Neil could possibly pay attention to.

Neil’s coughing grew haggard as he couldn’t seem to get enough air to support the effort. “Just…” he breathed in, coughed, “a fit…”

Andrew rolled his eyes, “You’re sick, Neil, fess up to it.”

Neil shook his head and convulsed as a shiver ran up and down his arms, “Andrew, I’m-”

“Save it for Abby. Are you going to puke or aren’t you?”

Neil looked around and realized that the bus had stopped. Wymack had pulled onto the shoulder of the highway just in case he had to puke. “I don’t think so, not… not for awhile.” He shivered again.

Andrew nodded to someone and Neil felt the bus lurch back into motion. Saliva started to gather in his mouth, but he swallowed down the bile as quickly as it rose. _I’m fine_.

“Oh honey,” Abby made her way down the aisle, shooing Nicky and Matt back to their seats as she passed by. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

Neil caught Andrew’s eye as they both came to the same conclusion. This was pretty mild compared to what they had done to their worst enemies, all things considered. Neil held back a laugh, it would only serve to worsen his coughing fit.

Abby pursed her lips as she held her hand up to Neil’s forehead. “You’re pretty hot,” they all ignored Nicky’s shouted “ _Hell yeah he is_ ” from the front of the bus, “we have about two hours until we reach campus, think you can get through that?”

Neil nodded, “That’s fine.” Andrew’s grip on the back of his neck tightened for a moment, but his grip relaxed when Abby nodded and headed back to her seat.

The bus relaxed into normalcy once again, the foxes slowly resuming their previous conversations and ridiculous roadtrip games. Soon the white noise of inane chatter filled the bus and Neil relaxed into Andrew’s side, cautious of his breathing and attempting to control the urge to cough every time he breathed out.

“What was it?” Andrew’s voice cut through Neil’s semi-consciousness. Neil blinked the sleepiness from his eyes and focused on Andrew’s face, blank as always but with a hint of curiosity this time.

Neil cleared his throat and hunched his shoulders against an oncoming shiver. He thought about it for a moment but couldn’t come up with anything from their recent conversation. “What was what?”

“What was it that set you off?” Andrew shifted in his seat to face Neil again, “That was a panic attack earlier, wasn’t it?”

Neil shrugged. _I’m fine_.

Andrew shifted again so that their sides were completely pressed together, then motioned for Neil to lay down. Neil cocked his head but obeyed, positioning himself across the bench so that his head and shoulders draped across Andrew’s lap and his feet hung into the aisle. It wasn’t the most comfortable he had ever been, but when Andrew’s hand came to rest on his mop of auburn curls, it was the closest to home he had ever felt. “I’m not supposed to get sick,” he whispered to the back of the seat in front of the them. Kevin was sitting there, but was very much asleep as evidenced by his loud snoring. Andrew’s fingers sifted through his bangs, gently untangling stubborn curls and scratching at the back of his scalp. It was encouragement to keep going.

“If we made an unplanned stop, even once, he could’ve found us,” Neil continued, a cough ripping its way through his throat at the end of the sentence. Andrew waited patiently while Neil suffered through another coughing fit. It would’ve been easier if he had been sitting up, but the feeling of Andrew’s cold hands on his heated forehead felt better than anything else could’ve right then. “We couldn’t be sick, or injured, or compromised in any way.” He continued.

“You can’t just not be sick.” Andrew stated matter-of-factly, his cool hand coming to rest on Neil’s forehead. Neil sighed, content and relaxed despite the subject matter. He hated talking about his mom to Andrew and the other foxes. They didn’t understand the relationship he had with her, how she was basically his savior. No one else could’ve kept them alive for that long. No one else would’ve even bothered.

“No,” Neil conceded, “but if you tell yourself something enough times, you can convince yourself that it’s true.” Andrew’s hand paused on the top of his head, his fingers tangled in a mess of curls. After a beat he continued his ministrations, but they were slightly stilted. Neil hummed in appreciation, content to let Andrew do whatever he wanted. Moments passed as Neil drifted in and out of sleep, his pounding head and violent chills fading to mild inconveniences. After about an hour, Neil was slowly drawn out of his stupor by Andrew’s voice, “What was that?” he murmured.

Andrew paused for a moment but repeated himself, “Tell me you’re sick.”

Neil swallowed, the roughness of his throat causing him to wince in pain. He shifted so that he was staring up at Andrew’s impassive face, emotionless and staring at the back of Kevin’s seat. Andrew’s hand started to slip off of Neil’s head, but before it was gone Neil reached up and gently grasped it, slowly twining his fingers through Andrew’s in silent permission. Andrew looked down at him, expression unreadable to anyone but Neil. “Andrew,” Neil began, the lead weight in the pit of his stomach growing heavier with every stilted breath he took. _I’m fine. I’m not sick. I’m just tired. It’ll pass_. “You should probably stop touching me.”

A flicker of emotion crossed Andrew’s face as he started to pull away. Neil smiled up at him and squeezed his hand before he could. “Because god knows how awful you would be if you were ever ill.”

Andrew scowled, “134%”

Neil hummed in agreement, “I don’t think they make chocolate-flavored cough syrup, Andrew.”

“Going on 140%”

Neil laughed, but that proved to be a big mistake as he quickly collapsed into a coughing spree. He doubled over from the effort, Andrew practically holding him up by his abdomen so he didn’t go sprawling on the bus floor. His coughing attracted the attention of the other foxes, but they weren’t as concerned as before, seeing how in between coughs Neil had the biggest, brightest smile they had ever seen.


End file.
